A rule requiring job-seekers to the Canada Summer Jobs program swear they were pro-choice, saw the number of rejections fall 72 per cent after Christian charities sued, says Blacklock’s Reporter..The Employment department said, in a report tabled in the Commons, the number of rejected applications totaled 441 in 2019, the most recent available figures, compared to 1,559 the year before..The lower rejection rate coincided with numerous legal challenges in the Federal Court and Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench..“To compel an individual to repeat what the government wants you to say on threat of not receiving a government benefit is sinister,” lawyer Carol Crosson of Crosson Constitutional Law of Airdrie, Alta., counsel for Christian plaintiffs, said in an earlier interview..“The most sinister threat to free speech is compelled speech.”.“This is compelled speech,” lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos of Vincent Dagenais Gibson LLP of Ottawa, told reporters in 2018..“This is forcing organizations to say something they otherwise would not say.”.The Department of Employment in 2017 issued a directive requiring all grant applicants to swear they recognized “sexual and reproductive rights and the right to access safe and legal abortions.”.The program receives an average of 40,000 applications a year. The number of rejected claims at the time was fewer than fifty, typically due to paperwork errors..Rejections after the 2017 directive increased from 46 annually to 1,559 worth more than $30.8 million..Plaintiffs who challenged the oath included the Right to Life Association of Toronto and Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform of Calgary..The employment department subsequently issued a new directive requiring that 2018 applicants swear “both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights And Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights.”.Evidence in one federal case showed the department monitored applicants’ social media posts looking for comments deemed inappropriate..“The social media is provided to show what was available as primary activities of the organizations,” testified Rachel Wernick, associate assistant deputy minister..Asked if pro-life tweets would breach federal regulations, Wernick replied: “I am not a lawyer to talk about that. I wasn’t personally responsible for that, so I can’t speak to that,” she said..Wernick in cross-examination said then-Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu ordered funding be restricted..“Officials were notified that she wanted to explore options to ensure that funding would not be allocated to primary activities that do not respect individual rights,” said Wernick..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
A rule requiring job-seekers to the Canada Summer Jobs program swear they were pro-choice, saw the number of rejections fall 72 per cent after Christian charities sued, says Blacklock’s Reporter..The Employment department said, in a report tabled in the Commons, the number of rejected applications totaled 441 in 2019, the most recent available figures, compared to 1,559 the year before..The lower rejection rate coincided with numerous legal challenges in the Federal Court and Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench..“To compel an individual to repeat what the government wants you to say on threat of not receiving a government benefit is sinister,” lawyer Carol Crosson of Crosson Constitutional Law of Airdrie, Alta., counsel for Christian plaintiffs, said in an earlier interview..“The most sinister threat to free speech is compelled speech.”.“This is compelled speech,” lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos of Vincent Dagenais Gibson LLP of Ottawa, told reporters in 2018..“This is forcing organizations to say something they otherwise would not say.”.The Department of Employment in 2017 issued a directive requiring all grant applicants to swear they recognized “sexual and reproductive rights and the right to access safe and legal abortions.”.The program receives an average of 40,000 applications a year. The number of rejected claims at the time was fewer than fifty, typically due to paperwork errors..Rejections after the 2017 directive increased from 46 annually to 1,559 worth more than $30.8 million..Plaintiffs who challenged the oath included the Right to Life Association of Toronto and Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform of Calgary..The employment department subsequently issued a new directive requiring that 2018 applicants swear “both the job and the organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights And Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights.”.Evidence in one federal case showed the department monitored applicants’ social media posts looking for comments deemed inappropriate..“The social media is provided to show what was available as primary activities of the organizations,” testified Rachel Wernick, associate assistant deputy minister..Asked if pro-life tweets would breach federal regulations, Wernick replied: “I am not a lawyer to talk about that. I wasn’t personally responsible for that, so I can’t speak to that,” she said..Wernick in cross-examination said then-Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu ordered funding be restricted..“Officials were notified that she wanted to explore options to ensure that funding would not be allocated to primary activities that do not respect individual rights,” said Wernick..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
